PROMISE ME (OSCAR DIAZ x OC)

Chapter Thirty-Nine (Alana) S4

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Alana

TWO YEARS LATER...

"Hi, Mami." I answer the phone the moment it rings at nearly 8 at night.

My mom calls me but never this late. She knows that usually Oscar and I are close to being asleep at that point. He works early in the morning and I'm up with the baby who just loves waking up to the sound of Oscar's alarm.

"I need you to come over tomorrow." Mami says with a slap of bitter in her words. "I can't take it anymore."

"I was just there yesterday."

"Yes, I know." Mami sighs into the phone. I sit up in bed and Oscar looks at me like I have seven heads. "But you need to talk to your brother."

"I just talked to him earlier when Cesar was gaming with him." I reply as I decide to just get up from the bed and go to the kitchen to talk to her. Oscar lays back down and I creep past the crib in our room with our daughter sound asleep.

"Oh you talked to him?" Mami's being sarcastic now. "And what did you talk to him about? Did it have anything to do with the activities he and Vero have been doing in that poor bedroom of his?"

Oh. "No... No I only asked if he was doing okay seeing as he's majorly stepped back and been actually doing good in school again instead of focusing on the Santos."

"Right." Mami clicks her tongue. "You need to come over tomorrow and explain to your brother and Vero how hard it is to be young and a parent. Make them watch her for an hour or two while you and Oscar go out to dinner or something."

I want to laugh at the absurdity of that. Me and Oscar going out to dinner? Yeah right. Ever since he finished culinary school he's been such a snob about restaurants and how half of the ones we used to love no longer fit his standard. He doesn't even let me cook anything anymore.

In fact, he shit talked Dwayne's so much that when I quit to take on dress making full time he traded in my Camry for a new SUV to be my "mom car" as he calls it. Of course, he still has his damn Impala.

"I'm not putting myself into that, Mami. Why not just have Papi talk to them? Or Abuelita-"

"Because Ruby listens to you. For the most part and... Vero needs to see that it's okay not to be a little bitch all the time. You and Oscar changed for the better but she's horrible, mija. Even when you were at your worst and you and Ruby were fist fighting and pulling on each other's hair and when you gave Mario a black eye... She's still worse than you."

"Yikes." I yawn as I look over at the clock. Way past my bedtime now and I know that every minute of sleep counts when you have an eighteen month old who's just start teething and currently is in her please hold me every moment that I'm awake or I'll scream until I vomit phase.

"So you'll come over for dinner tomorrow to talk to him? Great. I'll make that chicken with the pasta that you like. Love you, mija."

Mami clicks the phone and then follows that up with a text.

MAMI: Dinner will be at 5:30pm. Don't be late.

ME: You're killing me.

MAMI: Bring Mia. Maybe she'll scream enough to traumatize Ruby and Vero.

ME: She's a baby not a demon.

MAMI: Tell that to your Abuelita. She thinks that girl needs another baptism.

ME: On that note. I'm going to bed.

I crawl back into bed and Oscar rolls over, wrapping his arms around me and kissing my neck just enough to tease me. "Everything okay?"

"Mami needs me to give Ruby and Vero the quit having too much sex or you'll end up with a demon baby like mine talk tomorrow at dinner. Should be fun... You coming?"

I turn to face Oscar and he shakes his head at me. "I promised Cesar I'd help him with applying online for different schools and that we'd call Mr. Galindo to cash in on that offer for Cesar. And uh... He wants to help Ruby too."

"You told him about my brother?"

"No," Oscar shakes his head. "Cesar did. Cesar is really worried about Ruby. I mean he chilled out for a bit after the Cuchillos thing but then Monse cut everyone off and Jamal stopped being his friend and now he's got this girlfriend... I'd say it's not like Ruby but I don't know what's like him anymore."

I snort at that statement. "I don't even know either."

Oscar kisses my lips and I fall into his clutches. Letting him take my heart completely as he pulls me on top of him. I look down at him while he grins at me, biting his bottom lip and giving me a nod.

"You want this, mami?"

A moan slips past my lips. "Can you be quick? We need sleep before-"

And I spoke too soon. Jinxing our night completely. This has happened for two weeks now. Every time we're about to have some adult time, the baby wakes up.

I get off and walk over to the crib and pull out the baby, wrapping her in her blanket and holding her close to my body as she fusses.

"Mia Rae... Oh my, Mia Rae..." I sing softly to her as she cries. "What's going on sweet girl? What hurts? Is it those teeth again?"

Usually, she sleeps in her own room. Cesar turned the living room into a dual functioning bedroom and living room. He felt bad that Oscar and I had been keeping Mia in our room with us and decided the grown up decision would be to give up his room.

We told him he didn't have to do that, and especially not now because she wouldn't even sleep in her own room. She has to be close to us and most nights? She ends up in the bed with Oscar and I.

Oscar gets up and takes her from my arms and immediately she stops crying.

"Asshole." I grumble before climbing into my side of the bed. Oscar comes into the bed and places Mia between us. She giggles at him and he kisses her cheek that is perfectly dimpled like his.

"Can't help that she's a daddy's girl." Oscar's tone is full of bragging. Which he has earned all bragging rights but it still sucks to hear it.

Oscar kisses her again on the cheek and plays with her little tufts of curls until she's asleep again. Which doesn't take long at all.

"How much more do we need to save for a new house?" I ask while staring up at the ceiling in the dark.

"Another two grand and we'll be at our goal." Oscar replies. "We're almost there, mami. I promise."

"Promise me that we'll get the house of our dreams?"

"I promise." His pinky goes up and I wrap mine around it. "I know how you are about promises so trust me... We'll get the house of our dreams. Maybe it won't be our first house but it will be our last house. Alright, mi amor?"

"Alright... I trust you."

"Good." He smirks. "Get some sleep... I love you."

"I love you too, Oscar."

Two years ago I never would have imagined this as my life. Two years ago I was in such a dark place and now the only thing dark is this bedroom because Mia can't sleep with any shred of light, just like Oscar. She's all him in almost every single way.